Thursday, January 8, 2015

Aller au marché

The fog of recent days makes for incredibly moving
 panoramas. It removes the mountains and usual landmarks.

Yesterday I signed a partnership agreement—it's my first contract related to Uncle Gus' Monkey.

Warren and I have formed a partnership called Warlord Productions ("war" coming from Warren, "lor" coming from Loranger and "d" for "determined"). We are developing two properties: The screenplay Uncle Gus' Monkey and, starting in February, a derivative stage play. We are going to re-work the play that inspired the screenplay, Knock Knock, but as a straight play (we are dropping all the songs that were in the original play).

We are ready for our meeting with the Out TV producer who told us to come prepared to reveal: "What we want?"

It is rather amazing to know that every day this week, a member of Brad's team is reading our screenplay and that at some point they are all going to be sitting down in a room to discuss the pros and cons of producing it. That meeting will lead to a call that could go one of two ways: We will either be called in for a contract meeting, or it will be, "Thanks, but no thanks."

So far, however, every reader has been very positive so Warren and I both anticipate having to tell Brad "what we want." What we want is this:
  • Union scale for the screenplay
  • Points or a buy out of our production rights (fee per broadcast/viewing)
  • A fictionalized rendition of a my life story (we are willing to alter facts)
  • And we want all names changed (no real names)
  • Credit: "Written by Chris Tyrell Loranger and Warren Kimmel, based on the stage play, Knock Knock, by Chris Tyrell Loranger"

If the call is to come in (and not to piss off), it will be to sign an option agreement. Signing an option agreement is emotionally akin to selling your child to a pimp. We want a six month agreement but the industry standard is a year.  I consulted with an entertainment lawyer who is a friend and was very gratified to hear how much she respects Brad, the pimp.

It took years and years of encouragement from Dwight for me to write Knock Knock. And I chose to produce it myself in 21012 because I had no confidence in its worth. And I made it a fundraiser for a charity to get people to come for that reason, not out of interest in my life or respect for my capacity to write for the stage.

And it took another year of encouragement from Warren to turn Knock Knock (KK) into Uncle Gus' Monkey. We started in June 2014. It took three weeks to write the first draft and thenWarren and I spent about another fifty hours on the re-write that went to Brad. 

When I succumbed to Warren's pressure to turn KK into a screenplay, I did so without any expectations obviously. Neither of us had any relevant experience and we both knew we were embarking on a journey we shared with zillions of dreamers and that the probability of success was similar to winning the lottery. But here we are, way way beyond my expectations and—quelle surprise!—it feels really really great to pimp your kid.

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